


the sun was shining on the sea

by woodswanderer



Series: say could that lass be i [1]
Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2020-03-08 09:11:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18891568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/woodswanderer/pseuds/woodswanderer
Summary: By the dockside, before Arya sets off west.Gendry picked up her hand, holding it in his. “Come back. By all means, go off, choose your own destiny, you deserve it, but—in a few years, come back for me?”





	the sun was shining on the sea

**Author's Note:**

> me @ the game of thrones finale, imortan joe voice: MEDIOCRE.
> 
> Gotta fix that shit myself. I really think Arya wouldn't hate storms end, that poor girl deserves not having to travel the world for some damn peace, but I respect her right to go run off. So, best of both. 
> 
> I haven't written fic in years, and I've never really written well. I tried to put some emotion in her viewpoint, let me know if it worked. Title from the Walrus and the Carpenter. "Of shoes and ships and ceiling wax, of cabbages and kings."

Arya looked over the ship flying the Stark direwolf banners, checking that everything was in order. She had said goodbye to her brothers and her sister. She didn’t say goodbye to Gendry. It hurt too much. 

“Cargo’s aboard, Lady Arya,” the captain, an old friend of Davos’, said. Davos had helped her pick out a good crew from sailors he knew and Northerners who wanted a change. It was a small ship, but Arya was small too. She didn’t need to make an ostentatious statement.

“Thank you, Captain. We’ll sail at the tide,” Arya replied. She was excited to go. To leave behind her ghosts, her regrets, her failures. If she had to stay in Kings Landing one more minute…

“Arya,” a voice from behind her said. Fuck. Arya supposed there was no way of getting out of this. She turned to see Gendry, all lordly clothes and blacksmiths hands approaching. Arya sighed, stepping forward.

“Gendry.” He smiled at her, coming to a halt in front of her. He glanced over toward the ship.

“You’re leaving then?” he asked.

She turned inward. It hurt her to have to hurt him, when she knew what he wanted. But she knew she couldn’t stay. She might go mad. She opened her mouth to speak but he interrupted her.

“I mean—I know you’re leaving. I came to say goodbye. And to ask a favor,” Gendry said, his eyes soft. His eyes understood, the blue soft like the sea. Arya felt a little lighter staring into his eyes.

“A favor?” she asked.

Gendry picked up her hand, holding it in his. “Come back. By all means, go off, choose your own destiny, you deserve it, but—in a few years, come back for me?” she looked at him questioningly, her stomach suddenly full of stupid butterflies. “I would go with you now, but I feel like, the people of the Stormlands have been through enough, and they deserve a good leader to help them pick up the pieces. I don’t know if I’m a good leader, but Davos is, and he’s agreed to help me. But I meant it when I said none of it matters without you, so in a couple years, come back for me, and we’ll go off exploring together. We’ll see new things, make new friends, do good things. Maybe they’ll write stories about us one day. But you’ve gotta come back, okay? Don’t die in some stupid storm, or at the end of some idiot man’s sword?”

Arya felt like her heart could burst. She swallowed thickly. “What you don’t think Azor Ahai reborn can take care of herself?” she said swinging his hand, clutching it. 

He laughed. “Well, no one actually verified that prophecy, and considering how many times the Red Woman was wrong, I wouldn’t put faith in her visions.” He said. “I have a lot more faith in you.”

Arya used his hand to pull him close and kissed him lightly on the lips. “Just don’t go marrying some Stormlady. I mean, if you can wait…” she said, remembering her words to him in Winterfell, that any woman would be lucky to be his wife. She didn’t want to deny him that which he deserved. 

He pulled her close, kissing her again. “I don’t want a lady. I only want you. That’s not gonna change.” She kissed him back, her head full of possibilities for the future. Really, anything could happen. And, why not? It was a brave, new, world. “Now, off with you, the sooner you leave, the sooner you’ll be back.” She let go his hand, but a closeness remained. They smiled at each other like idiots as she boarded the gangplank, and the ship set off. 

He was still waving, only a speck in the distance when she turned to face west with a full heart. Really, anything could happen.


End file.
